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Contact

Data Science Specialization

As part of my doctoral training, I am currently pursuing a 5-course Data Science Specialization taught entirely in R, focused on reproducible analysis, data visualization, functional programming, and machine learning within a tidyverse framework.

Programming Skills

R & R Markdown
Git & Github
Bash
MATLAB
HTML/CSS

Disclaimer

Created with pagedown.
Source code on GitHub.
Last updated on 2021-01-26.

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Brendan Cullen

I am a PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. My research focuses on predicting real-world health behaviors and health outcomes in an effort to advance a precision medicine framework for behavioral health. As an aspiring data scientist, my goal is to develop open-source statistical software to support health and wellness.

Education

PhD Student, Psychology

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

2022 - 2017

  • My research takes a translational (neuro)science approach toward predictive modeling of self-regulation processes and health-risking behaviors within a precision medicine framework.

MS, Psychology

University of Oregon

Eugene, OR

2019 - 2017

  • Thesis: Comparing cognitive and affective predictors of craving

BA, Neuroscience

Middlebury College

Middlebury, VT

2015 - 2011

  • Thesis: Neurophysiological correlates of self-referential activity in meditators and non-meditators

Certification

RStudio Certified Instructor

RStudio, PBC

N/A

2020

Honors & Awards

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship [more info]

National Science Foundation

N/A

2023 - 2018

Gregores Research Award [more info]

Department of Pyschology, University of Oregon

N/A

2020

Graduate Education Committee Research Award

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon

N/A

2020

General University Scholarship [more info]

University of Oregon

N/A

2020

Pilot & Training Core Travel Award [more info]

Center on Parenting and Opioids, University of Oregon

N/A

2020

Graduate School “Special Opps” Travel & Research Award [more info]

University of Oregon

N/A

2020

Graduate Education Committee Travel Award

Department of Psychology, University of Oregon

N/A

2019

Graduate School Recruitment Award [more info]

University of Oregon

N/A

2017

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute Fellow [more info]

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2017

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies Scholarship [more info]

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2016

BA in Neuroscience with Highest Honors, Summa Cum Laude

Middlebury College

N/A

2015

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa [more info]

Middlebury College

N/A

2015

Dean’s Honor List (8 semesters)

Middlebury College

N/A

2015 - 2011

Rosalin Lieberman-Reiss Memorial Award

Department of Psychology, Middlebury College

N/A

2015

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute Fellow [more info]

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2015

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies Scholarship [more info]

Mind and Life Institute

N/A

2014

Academic Conference Travel Fund Award

Middlebury College

N/A

2014

Senior Research Project Supplement

Middlebury College

N/A

2014

Bicentennial Fund for Research Partnerships in the Sciences Fellowship

Middlebury College

N/A

2014

Fred M. Roddy Research Fellowship in Biomedical Science

Middlebury College

N/A

2013

Professional Research Experience

Graduate Employee

Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab

University of Oregon

2018 - 2017

  • Selected self-report measures and co-designed interventions for NCI-funded RCT comparing behavioral response and cognitive reappraisal interventions for devaluing unhealthy food
  • Created automated workflow for daily backup of fMRI data via a high performance computing cluster

Research Assistant

Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Lab

Brown University

2017 - 2015

  • Cleaned and scored 20+ self-report measures from a 3-armed RCT comparing focused awareness meditation, open-monitoring meditation, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on clinical efficacy for depression
  • Led a project investigating the effects of meditation training on EEG and behavioral measures of self-referential processing

Research Assistant

Embodied Neuroscience Lab

Brown University

2017 - 2015

  • Collected EEG data for pilot RCT testing a neuromuscular-immune model of chronic fatigue in female cancer survivors
  • Designed custom software in MATLAB to implement novel EEG/EMG paradigm for measuring neural correlates of tactile acuity and precision grip strength

Recruitment Specialist

Women’s Medicine Collaborative,
Miriam Hospital

Providence, RI

2016

  • Developed strategies to recruit specialized patient populations for randomized controlled trials, including female cancer survivors and patients with asthma

Research Assistant

Social Psychology of Meditation Lab

Middlebury College

2015 - 2014

  • Led a study on relationship between mindfulness, hormones, empathy, and prosocial behavior
  • Recruited and interviewed participants, administered surveys and cognitive tests, and analyzed salivary cortisol and testosterone assays

Research Assistant

Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Lab

Middlebury College

2014 - 2013

  • Collected animal behavior data on the dose-dependent effects of testosterone replacement on spatial memory
  • Performed behavioral testing, prepared brain samples, collected microscopy data and assisted with manuscript preparation

Teaching Experience (Courses)

I believe that learning open-source data science tools can empower us to be better scientists and critical thinkers. During my third year of graduate school, I served as a teaching assistant and lab instructor for both undergraduate and graduate-level statistics courses, for which I spent a significant amount of time creating educational resources about analyzing data in R and jamovi.

Lab Instructor

PSY 302: Statistical Methods in Psychology

University of Oregon

2020

  • Taught online lab sections for introductory undergraduate statistics course (~200 students total) using the open-source statistical software jamovi. (Spring 2020)

Lab Instructor

PSY 612: Data Analysis II

University of Oregon

2020

Lab Instructor

PSY 611: Data Analysis I

University of Oregon

2019

Teaching Assistant

PSYC 301: Physiological Psychology

Middlebury College

2015

  • Assisted with lab and discussion sections, held exam review sessions, prepared experimental equipment, and conducted animal testing for student projects

Workshops Taught

UO Psych R Bootcamp

Department of Psychology

University of Oregon

2020

  • 3-day introductory bootcamp covering basics of R, R Markdown and transforming and visualizing data with the tidyverse. ~45 attendees including current and incoming grad students, undergrads, research staff and tenure-track faculty.

Introduction to Git and Github

Psychology First Year Research Seminar

University of Oregon

2020

  • Introductory workshop for ~20 first-year psychology PhD and Master’s students on basics of using Git and Github for version control

Intermediate Git and Github

UO Data Science Club

University of Oregon

2019

  • Intermediate Git/Github workshop for University of Oregon’s Data Science Club, including discussion of merge conflicts, branching, pull requests, and best practices for collaborative Github projects



Peer-reviewed Publications

My peer-reviewed scientific publications are varied in topic, ranging from the neuroendocrinology of spatial memory to decomposing neurocognitive mechanisms of mindfulness practices with respect to clinical depression outcomes. In general, I am interested in studying how the plasticity of the brain can be leveraged to better understand and guide adpative changes in behavior.

Dismantling Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Creation and validation of 8-week Focused Attention and Open Monitoring interventions within a 3-armed randomized controlled trial

Behaviour and Research Therapy, 101, 92-107.

N/A

2018

  • Britton, W.B., Davis, J., Loucks, E.B., Peterson, B., Cullen, B., Reuter, L., Rando, A., Rahrig, H., Lipsky, J. & Lindahl, J. (2018).

Comparing embodiment experiences in expert meditators and non-meditators

Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 325-333.

N/A

2018

  • Xu, A., Cullen, B., Penner, C., Zimmerman, C., Kerr, C.E., & Schmalzl, L. (2018)

Dose-dependent effects of testosterone on spatial memory in adult male rats

Psychoneuroendocrinology, 89, 120-130.

N/A

2018

  • Wagner, B., Braddick, V. Batson, C., Cullen, B., Miller, E. & Spritzer, M. (2018).

Pre-prints & Works in Progress

The contributions of focused attention and open monitoring in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: a 3-armed randomized dismantling trial

Under review

N/A

2020

  • Cullen, B., Eichel, K., Lindahl, J., Rahrig, H., Kini, N., Flahive, J. & Britton, W.B.

Neural correlates of emotion reactivity and emotion regulation in women with borderline personality disorder: A replication of the literature with novel extensions

In prep

N/A

2020

  • Lewis, J., Cullen, B., Giuliani, N., & Zalewski, M.

Comparing cognitive and affective predictors of craving

Pre-print

N/A

2019

  • Cullen, B., DeStasio, K., Cosme, D., & Berkman, E.T.

Selected Poster Presentations

Cognitive versus affective predictors of craving

Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Portland, OR

2019

  • Cullen, B., DeStasio, K., Cosme, D., & Berkman, E.T. (2019)

Personalized stop-signal training to improve inhibitory control among adults who experienced early adversity

Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Portland, OR

2019

  • DeStasio, K., Cullen, B., Shaffer, K., & Berkman, E.T. (2019)

Teacher effects in a school-based mindfulness intervention

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

Garrison, NY

2017

  • Cullen, B., Canby, N., & Britton, W. B.

Sustained Attention in Focused Attention versus Open Monitoring Meditation: Behavioral and Neurophysiological Changes

29th Association for Psychological
Science Annual Convention

Boston, MA

2017

  • Eichel, K., Essien, G., Cullen, B., Rogers, A. & Britton, W.B.

Dose-dependent effects of testosterone on spatial memory in young and adult male rats

International Meeting for Steroids and the
Nervous System

Turin, Italy

2017

  • Spritzer, M.D., Batson, C.G., Braddick, V.C., Chyr, C.U., Cullen, B., Goins, E.C., Jaeger, E.C.B., Miller, L.E., Super, C., & Wagner, B.A.

An open-source system for EEG neurofeedback and transcranial current stimulation control: Applications for meditation research

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies,
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Cullen, B., Santoyo, J., Black, C., McFarlane-Blake, C. & Kerr, C.

A Neurofeedback Informed Meditation Technique (NIMT) for modulating posterior cingulate cortex activity: Proof-of concept for a novel mental-training paradigm with clinical applications

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies,
Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Santoyo, J., Cullen, B., & Kerr, C.

The role of social relationships in contemplative development

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

Garrison, NY

2016

  • Canby, N., Margolis, C., Cullen, B., Rahrig, H., Alejandra-Lara, A., Noorani, M., Lindahl, J. & Britton, W.

The impact of social relationship factors on clinical outcomes in Mindfulness-Based Interventions

Brown University Mind Brain Research Day
Brown University Public Health Research Day

Providence, RI

2016

  • Cullen, B., Rahrig, H., Dumais, T., Canby, N., Lindahl, J., & Britton, W.

Neurophysiological correlates of self-referential activity in meditators and non-meditators

Mind and Life Summer Research Institute

Garrison, NY

2015

  • Cullen, B., Bruns, M., Paritsky, A., McGuirk, E., Ogle, T., Kimble, M., & Cronise, K.

Neurophysiological correlates of self-referential activity in meditators and non-meditators

Advances in Meditation Research

New York, NY

2015

  • Cullen, B., Bruns, M., Paritsky, A., McGuirk, E., Ogle, T., Kimble, M., & Cronise, K.

Do expert meditators differ from novice and non-meditators in emotion identification, physiological competitive reactions, or prosocial responses?

Center for Compassion and Altruism Research
and Education Science of Compassion Conference

San Francisco, CA

2014

  • Cullen, B., Stallworthy, I., Lesenskyj, A., Boles, L., Weinert-Stein, M., Percelay, R., Kahn, H.; McGuirk, E., Sellers, J., & Cronise, K.

Effects of testosterone dose on spatial memory in adult male rats

Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting

Washington, D.C.

2014

  • Cullen, B., Spritzer, M., Batson, C., Spillane, S., & Wagner, B.


Talks

Predicting diabetes status from personality using machine learning

useR! 2020 (canceled)

St. Louis, MO

2020

  • Cullen, B., Weston, S., & Condon, D.

Dismantling effects of focused attention and open monitoring techniques in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for affective disturbances

Annual Meeting and Expo of the American
Public Health Association

Atlanta, GA

2017

  • Chang, B., Cullen, B., Kini, N., Rahrig, H., & Britton, W.

Movement, embodiment and interoception in the context of contemplative practices (Panel)

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Schmalzl, L., Powers, C., Yetz, N., Groessl, EJ., Saron, C., Kerr, C., Zimmerman, C., Cullen, B., Clark, D., Mostofsky, SH., Feinstein, J., Khalsa, S., Simmons, K., & Paulus, M.

Effects of focused attention and open monitoring meditation on sustained attention

International Symposium for Contemplative Studies

San Diego, CA

2016

  • Eichel, K., Cullen, B., & Britton, W.





Additional Training

RStudio Instructor Training

RStudio, PBC

Remote

2020

  • Two-day intensive training on applying modern evidence-based teaching practices to teach data science using R and RStudio’s products.

Introduction to Machine Learning with the Tidyverse

rstudio::conf(2020)

San Francisco, CA

2020

  • Two-day workshop on machine learning with tidymodels taught by Alison Hill. Topics covered included prediction, classification, sampling & resampling, ensembling, workflows, recipes, cross-validation and model tuning.

Service & Leadership

Co-organizer

Cascadia R Conf 2020

Eugene, OR

2020

  • Updated website, designed new hex sticker, secured additional sponsors

Co-organizer

Eugene Brainhack

Eugene, OR

2018

  • Co-organized a two-day Brainhack event hosted at the University of Oregon for collaborative software development projects related to computational neuroscience and psychology

Science communication ambassador

The People’s Science

Eugene, OR

2018

  • Trained to be a coach to assist people with communicating their scientific work to the general public

Lab Tour Guide

Intel Science Fair

Eugene, OR

2018

  • Gave a presentation for middle- and high-school students as part of a science outreach event during the regional Intel Science Fair in Eugene
  • Gave students a tour of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab and hosted a Q&A session about scientific careers

Co-organizer

Mindfulness, Healing and Empathy in Healthcare Speaker Series,
Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University

Providence, RI

2016

  • Coordinated with guest speakers for a 6-part lecture series for Brown University medical students and community members
  • Created a website to advertise the public talks and to provide community members with information about mindfulness resources